


Lacuna

by Nyodrite



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Non-Chronological, The Golden Trio Era (Harry Potter)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-26
Updated: 2020-09-14
Packaged: 2020-09-27 08:51:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20404996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nyodrite/pseuds/Nyodrite
Summary: - an unfilled space or interval; a gap1.a little candle burns, or that one wherein Charlie is a seventh year while Harry and Co. are firsties and things change2.we were never meant to survive, or that one wherein no one has magic and Charlie really isn't paid enough to babysit through the apocalypse





	1. a little candle burns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Charlie blinked but the sight remained the same.
> 
> The scrawny, best friend of his youngest brother stood just outside his door with a school trunk to the left of him and a large, malnourished dog to his right. Harry took his glasses off, nervously scrubbing them with a sleeve before the dog leaned against him and the teen calmed enough to finally speak, "Can I- um...can I stay here...for the rest of the summer?"
> 
> "...huh. Yeah, okay." Charlie said, it's not like he could turn the boy out - especially so_ late_, and internally wondered how his life got to this point.

Charlie blinked but the sight remained the same.

The scrawny, best friend of his youngest brother stood just outside his door with a school trunk to the left of him and a large, malnourished dog to his right. Harry took his glasses off, nervously scrubbing them with a sleeve before the dog leaned against him and the teen calmed enough to finally speak, "Can I- um...can I stay here...for the rest of the summer?"

"...huh. Yeah, okay." Charlie said, it's not like he could turn the boy out - especially so_ late_, and internally wondered how his life got to this point. "Have you eaten dinner yet?" He asked, stepping back and allowing the two inside.

Harry tripped. "Ah," he fumbled with his glasses and Charlie decided to just take the trunk rather then let the boy continue to struggle with it. "No, I didn't manage to eat before I came."

_ Now, _Charlie wondered but didn't ask as he shooed the two inside and locked his door again. Hustling both of his guests into the kitchen and giving them water, a bowl for the dog and a mug for the boy. _What happened that lead to you leaving before dinner? That had you coming here, with no warning yet needing a place for the rest of summer and with a dog that has never been mentioned before?_

He had his theories, ones that he'd have to track down Tonks in order to figure out the best way to proceed, and didn't like them one bit. He also didn't like that there was a very real possibility that, regardless of whatever schemes he and Tonks came up with, he wouldn't truly be able to help. He hadn't been able to do much last year when George passed on the entire thing about Harry getting locked in his room, barred windows and all, like a criminal.

It was distressingly likely that he would be unable to help, that politics would prevent Harry from getting the help he needed.

_ But,_ Charlie decided. _I can give you someplace safe for now._

* * *

“Captain!” 

Charlie nearly sighed, something that Tonks noticed if her smirk was any indication, but he _ was _ actually expecting something like this to happen when he decided he should finish his seventh year and properly graduate instead of going to Romania immediately after he turned seventeen. Gryffindor’s Keeper, a - now fifth year - teen named Oliver Wood, stood in the doorway of the compartment, a piece of parchment in hand.

“Not your captain anymore, Oliver.” He told his old teammate. “_You’re _ captain now.”

Oliver gaped at him for a moment, “But- you- _ Seeker? _”

“Yes, you’ll need to find a new Seeker for the team.” Charlie said, “I’ll be too busy for it. Truthfully, I was too busy for it since after winter holidays last year but it would have been bad form to quit in the middle of the year.”

"We can't have no _ Seeker_." Oliver looks horrified at the prospect. "We'll be obliterated!"

“It’ll be fine, you’ll just have to hold tryouts again.” He tried to reason to no avail.

“You know,” Tonks said, mock-thoughtfully. “I think Barnes mentioned how Hufflepuff’s new Seeker, Diggory I think?, had been chosen at the end of last year and training over the summer since Callaghan decided to take this year off also but actually told her team beforehand so they could prepare.” He kicked her shoe, because she knew full well why he didn’t say anything. She ignored this and smiled at Oliver. “It’s nice to know Hufflepuff’s chances of stealing the cup from Gryffindor just got better.”

The fifth year gaped at her in wordless horror for a moment before letting loose a noise of utter despair then fleeing the compartment.

“Well, I think that went well.” Tonks told him pleasantly.

Charlie snorted. “You’re _ evil_.”

“I,” she sniffed haughtily. “Am an utter _ delight_.”

“You just terrorized a fifth year, and an entire Quidditch team through him. We’re not even at school yet.”

“Yes, well,” Tonks said, not denying it. “This is why I’m not Head Girl, or even a Prefect.”

* * *

"Dragon." Charlie repeated blankly.

"Yes!" the girl with his brother said, nodding rapidly and making her bushy hair fly everywhere. "It's recently hatched and Hagrid is keeping it in his home, which is made of _wood-!_"

"We're _not_ lying," the boy said, almost glaring up at him from behind the glasses. "There _is_ a dragon."

"No, I believe you." He told them, watching as the three relaxed a bit, no longer vibrating tension. "It's just a bit of a shock."

_Because I'd have thought Hagrid would have told me if he got a dragon egg, _Charlie thinks but discards it almost at once.

It made sense that Hagrid didn't say anything even when he _knew_ how much Charlie loved dragons or how he was going to Romania next year to work with them. It made sense, because Hagrid wanted to keep the dragon and Charlie wouldn't - _couldn't_ \- let him. It wasn't even that Hagrid lived in a wooden hut that could easily burn and the dragon would soon outgrow, nor was it the fact that it was all around a bad - borderline illegal - idea to keep a dragon living at the same school hundreds of students were at most of the year.

It was because the dragon didn't deserve to live in isolation from it's kind.

It was more the fact that the dragon needed more food to be healthy then Hagrid alone could provide. 

It was the fact that it needed to fly to be happy and healthy and that, if it flew around _here_, it would be hunted down and killed.

"Don't worry," Charlie finally told them after he nodded to himself, reaffirming his decision. "I'll take care of it."

* * *

"_Tonks_." He hissed, dragging her into an empty classroom. "I need your help."

"I'm not pretending to be you so you can get that Wood kid off your back." She told him at once. "Not after last time."

Charlie shook his head, "No. This is something completely different. Ron and his friends came to me with a problem that I said I'd take care of and I have no idea how I'm going to do that."

"Helping little firsties," Tonks cooed at him, patting his cheek. "It's a wonder that you're not Head Boy with that attitude."

He put his hands on her shoulders, shaking her lightly for emphasis. "Tonks. I _need_ your help. There's a dragon on campus and I need to figure out how to get it somewhere safe, _without_ dragging the DMLE into things and potentially getting it killed instead."

"_Oh._" She said, blinking at him. "That's entirely different from what I was expecting - how did a couple of first years find a _dragon_ of all things-?" She paused, then shook her head. "No, nevermind, I'll ask later. First we need to smuggle a dragon."

"It's still small," Charlie said, using his hands to give an approximation. "Only hatched this month so it'll be easy enough to get out when we figure out _where_ to send it."

She nodded, remaining silent and thoughtful for a few moments before lighting up. "I know! There's this kid, Summers, in my house that was talking about how his aunt works at the Welsh Dragon Reserve - we can get him to send her a letter to arrange a pick-up, smuggle the little lizard baby to Hogsmede over night to be sent on it's way to a new home!"

"That.... could work." He allowed.

Tonks sniffed. "Of course, it's _my_ plan after all."

* * *

"There is," Charlie said slowly, deliberately. "Absolutely no reason for you to have gone alone."

"We couldn't just let Voldemort take the stone!" Harry protested and he had to hold himself firm to keep from giving in to the instinct to flinch at the name.

"_No reason._" He repeated firmly, watching the three cringe slightly. "Maybe the Headmaster wasn't here, maybe Professor McGonagall didn't believe you," he allowed, not pausing to allow another outburst. "But you could have asked _me_. You knew exactly where I was and it's not like I haven't helped you three before - I believed you with the dragon, why was this time any different?"

He waited a beat but got no answer.

"Even if you didn't want to potentially drag me into danger, did it ever occur to you three that the traps could have been beyond your _one year of experience using magic?_" Charlie didn't yell, he very deliberately didn't yell at them for all he almost suffered a heart attack when he first heard about what happened. "You're _first years_. And _maybe_ you're smart and resourceful but still only first years, did it occur to you as you were racing off to be heroes that you could have _failed? _That you would have died before even reaching - Voldemort?" He said, managing to say the name after a moment of hesitation.

Charlie wished he didn't have to, wished he could have gone his entire life without ever saying that name, but this was _important_. He needed them to understand how dangerous this was, how reckless. How easily they could have failed. Needed them to know that they could have asked for help - Ron especially, who had several older brothers who would have helped him if he only _asked_ \- even if the first person they asked didn't listen. He needed them to know that they _shouldn't_ have done this, that they had been _rewarded_ for it only meant he had to work harder to drive the point home.

It meant he had to be harsher on them.

"You never considered that you could have failed, not really." He added before Ron could voice his protest. "If you had considered the possibility you would have _at least_ left a note, just in case. Instead you go off on your own without knowing what you may face, never once considering that you could fail."

"No, you were far too proud of your own cleverness of figuring the big mystery out."

* * *

The compartment door opened but Charlie didn't look to see who it was, instead keeping his arm over his eyes.

"You did the right thing." Tonks' voice echoed a bit in the silence of the compartment. "They needed that."

He still didn't look, even as he answered her. "They _hate_ me."

"I never said that they'd thank you for it," she said, tone wry and he huffed in agreement. "But it's something they needed to hear anyways. Those three keep getting into trouble, and I have a feeling that won't stop next year either, so it's better that someone tries to pound it into their heads that they don't have to do everything alone. Better now when there's a chance of success then later on when it's become a habit, before they get killed because of it."

"I know." He said, sitting up and looking at her - pausing slightly at her brown hair. "I know that but, I'm worried that I've ruined the trust they had in me. That I've only made things worse."

"Could be." Tonks said instead of lying. "And it's really bloody terrible that it fell to _you_ to try and set them straight instead of an actual teacher but we work with what we got. We'll look after them."

Neither of them said anything for a while, both lost in their own thoughts. Charlie didn't know what Tonks was thinking, but he thought about the past year that was far more hectic then he had thought it would be. He thought of his youngest brother and friends getting tangled in with more and more trouble, trouble that didn't seem likely to stop just because the year was over. He thought about his other brothers who might find trouble themselves, about little Ginny who would be starting next year and could go crashing into the same kind of trouble Ron did his first year.

He thought about what Tonks said, about working with what they had and looking after them - and he made a _choice_.

"I'm not going to Romania."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Charlie definitely has his own place as seen in the first little word-bit, a bit more about it.... well, it's an apartment that at one point I imagined being located in Devon? 
> 
> it has a pretty large kitchen for an apartment, but it's a bit less for cooking - though I do see Charlie as being capable of cooking for himself, magically or _not_ \- and more for when Charlie finds the next stray creature in need of assistance. the kitchen functions as a little makeshift infirmary or bath-area as needed, he doesn't tend to keep the strays long but until there is somewhere he can send them then they generally live in that area since it's easier to clean. it's also perpetually stocked with a wide range of odd foods for this reason because Charlie needs to be prepared to feed whatever creature he is bringing home this week
> 
> there's only one bedroom but it's decently sized and has several beds in it - charlie's a bunk bed and a couch that can be a bed - for when his siblings stay over. Percy is the one I see staying over the most often, and the twins after that but occasionally I think that Charlie would have all his younger siblings over to let his parents have a night to themselves. a date night if you will
> 
> Hermione and Harry came to his apartment once, during the summer before their second year when he was still moving in - they were in fact, with the other Weasleys - kind of shanghaied into helping Charlie move into his apartment
> 
> not really related to the apartment, but maybe the kitchen?, is that I see Charlie working at a kind of animal shelter here? magical or not i don't know exactly but he and Tonks definitely meet up every other weekend to talk about being Adults


	2. we were never meant to survive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "How long?"
> 
> Charlie blinked, looked up from the hammer he was debating on to his brother. Ron didn't look at him, looking past him at the clock Bill had made in his last year before graduation - the one with all their names one it.
> 
> "What?" He asked.
> 
> Ron kept his eyes trained on the clock. "How long will we look before-" the boy's voice wavered and cracked but he went on anyways. "Before we _ stop_?"
> 
> _ Before we say they're dead? _ is what was really being asked.

A quiet little _wuff_ sounded, nothing at all like the loud booming barks that the dog was capable of. The noise didn't go far, barely even made it to Charlie's ears not five feet from the animal but it still made him tense and strain his hearing for movement of approaching danger.

"Paddy _shhh_." Harry whispered behind him, likely petting the dog. "No speak."

He almost winced at the added noise but didn't reprimand the child, it wasn't worth it. Not only would that make even _more_ noise but it would also make Harry retreat into himself once again, make the boy go silent and mute like he was when they first found him. Instead of saying anything, Charlie waited and listened carefully for movement before peeking around the corner to check if the coast was clear.

A creaking groan echoed into the silence and he froze, the children behind him stilling as did the dog. 

With his head still peeking around the corner, he was able to see when the creature slowly made its way into view at the opposite side of the small, one-way street. He saw how it staggered along, making little creaky groans at the effort, and paused to look down the street towards him. Saw that gaping jaw shudder and snap, head tilting as it listened — it's pale, sightless eyes bore into him. Watching. Waiting for him, or one of his charges, to give themselves away so it could hunt — so it could _ feed_.

A scream sounded, desperate and full of pain, and to the west.

The creature's head snapped towards it, jaw falling open wider and shuddering as it _ shrieked _ in what could have been a challenge or hunting call. Again and again the shrieks came, all around them and from other creatures who heard either the person's scream or their fellow's call. Then it was gone, charging off towards the source of the scream, intent on a meal - followed by one, two… _ six _ others of its kind.

Charlie waited a moment after the last creature darted past before turning to look behind him.

Three children stared back at him.

* * *

"Are you sure?" Molly Weasley asked for the umpteenth time in the last hour, hovering before the door instead of going outside after her husband and several children. "It would be no trouble for me to stay-"

"Yes mum, I'm sure." Charlie told her, somewhere between amused and exasperated. "Ron's not that bad, it's just a small cold - I can deal with that just fine."

His mother nodded, turned to go. Took a step towards the door, paused then turned back again. "If he gets worse, just call me and I'll be on the first train back no matter the time, okay? Make sure you check his temperature, every hour - unless he's sleeping, he needs the rest - just in case, the telly has been talking about a new disease spreading around and it looks like a cold at first. Maybe I should stay?"

"We'll be _fine_." He insisted, moving forwards to hug her before escorting her the rest of the way to the door. "If anything happens I'll call, but you don't have to stay mum - you've been looking forwards to visiting Bill too."

"It _has_ been a while." She allowed, hesitated on the other side of the door to ask. "If you're _sure_..."

"I am." Charlie said, voice firm and calm as if he were talking to a skittish animal. "We will be fine."

Molly hesitates still but, after a quick hug, she finally concedes and leaves to join the rest waiting in the car. He closes the door.

Ron, who had been 'asleep', pokes his head up over the back of the couch. "She gone?"

"Yes." He tells the seven year old. "Want to watch Doctor Who and have some cocoa?"

His youngest brother squints at him, in what would have been 'suspicion' if his mused hair didn't make him look more like a disgruntled guinea pig instead. "_With_ marshmallows?"

"Is there any other way to have cocoa?"

* * *

"....what if we can't find them?"

It's the first thing Ron has said since Charlie mentioned leaving and, while he's relieved to hear his brother's voice again, he wished it was an easier question to answer. "If we don't find them at Bill's place, then we'll keep looking."

His brother is silent and after a moment he continues looking at everything he'd gathered - from the house, the shed, the yard and even some things scavenged from neighbors - to try and judge what would be the most important. Mentally weighing how _useful_ the items might be beyond the walls of their home, how vital it may be to survival.

There was only so much that they could carry before the potential benefits were outweighed by the risks of the excessive weight.

"How long?"

Charlie blinked, looked up from the hammer he was debating on to his brother. Ron didn't look at him, looking past him at the clock Bill had made in his last year before graduation - the one with all their names one it.

"What?" He asked.

Ron kept his eyes trained on the clock. "How long will we look before-" the boy's voice wavered and cracked but he went on anyways. "Before we _ stop_?"

_ Before we say they're dead? _ is what was really being asked.

"I…" Charlie swallowed, taking a glance at the clock also - at all their names carefully carved on it. "If they're not there, we will look for them and decide if we'll be able to make the trip back in time for winter or if it'd be better to stick it out at Bill's."

Because not only were the - creatures a problem but so were other things. Supplies. Shelter. Warmth. _ Food_. With no markets, no farms or any of the normal means of getting food, it was entirely likely that they'd starve.

Even in the midst of an apocalypse, winter was coming.

* * *

Finding a place to sleep was a carefully balanced tightrope. 

The risk of taking Ron with him, into unknown buildings that could have creatures hidden away in every secret corner and detected only once it was already attacking, warred with the risk of leaving Ron alone. His little brother was smart, maybe his school work never advertised it before but Ron had been the one to work out that they could be hidden from the creatures if only they were still and _silent_. More often then not, Charlie decided that it was safer to have Ron hide away somewhere - up a tree, in an alley, under a park slide - while he went to clear out their potential sleeping spot.

And it _worked_.

Perhaps that was why Charlie was so off kilter when he came back from clearing out a corner house - this one even had a basement that seemed to be used for storage - to find Ron _missing_. There wasn't any sign of struggle, and he had certainly never heard any kind of struggle, but Ron was too smart to just wander off for no reason. Which either meant there _was_ a reason to wander or that someone had managed to - quietly - take his little brother.

Ice crept up his spine. There was a significant chance that he wouldn't be able to find Ron again.

If his brother had been taken, the person who took him could have anywhere between fifteen minutes to a two hour head start and Charlie would have to hope he was lucky enough to pick the right direction to search. If Ron had left on his own, then the best option would be to remain in place so his brother could find him again and hope that Ron didn't get sidetracked or forced into enough detours to be caught out alone at night. And, regardless of the situation, Charlie had to hope that he picked the correct response - that he wasn't leaving if Ron was going to come back, that he wasn't staying if Ron had been taken.

He couldn't call for Ron, hoping his brother would hear him and come or give him some kind of hint, not with those creatures tracking sound. There wasn't anyone here to help him, even if there were another person present it was unlikely that they'd risk themselves to help a stranger who may just be leading them into an ambush.

_I lost my little brother, mum is going to-_

"Charlie." He whirled at the whisper, stomach swooping at the sight of his brother's head peeking out of an alley. "Found someone." It was only after moving closer that Charlie spotted the other child, thin and dark haired with green eyes peeking out from a pair of glasses with cracked lenses, and the large, black dog. 

Honestly, it was a mystery how he missed the dog.

* * *

The library hadn't been on list of places to visit. It had, in fact, been on the list of things to _avoid_. Public buildings were often too much of a potential danger to risk going in for whatever supplies there may be.

They had passed by a train station once. Paddy had been bristling the entire time the made their way towards it, a low growl rumbling before falling silent after a single, distressed whine. There had been dozens milling around, entirely still with jaws open and heads tilted as they _listened_ for prey to come, and who knows how many more hidden from sight down the stairs. They wound up sacrificing a Sound Bomb - as Ron named his little invention of a glass Christmas ornament stuffed with jingle bells and rags to muffle the sound when walking - by having Harry, who had the best aim of them by far, toss it down the stairs so when the shattering glass followed by ringing bells sounded, all the creatures surged for the sound.

_(Charlie wondered if his mother died in one of the train stations across the country. If she had sneaked away when she first learned about what was going on and tried to come home, tried to find them._

_He wondered if she was still there.)_

It was a unanimous decision that public spaces were something to avoid.

_However.._. Charlie looked at the boy, biting his lip and starting to hunch into himself but green eyes still determined, and let out a quiet sigh. "Are you sure, Harry?"

Harry, apparently having decided that enough words were used in his initial request, merely nodded once.

"Could help." Ron said, immediately backing up his friend. "Find books to fix things. Make things. Grow food."

Charlie took a moment to compare his brother's words to how Ron had spoken before everything happened. To take in how Ron had stopped using grammar, had more often used only two word sentences to get his meaning across. It was, admittedly, a smart choice given the less you had to say the less of a risk it was to be overheard and attacked - by creatures or other humans - but it was still concerning. Was it _just_ that Ron was trying to be safe or was the enforced silence, the lack of any proper lessons, making his brother _forget_ how to speak?

He didn't know.

"Alright." Charlie nodded slowly, and maybe he couldn't keep them from forgetting how to talk but he can at least make sure they knew how to _read_. "The library it is then."

Twenty minutes and a surprisingly personable Harry later, he had an ally in the form of Hermione Granger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This AU has an apocalypse-based one mixed with a No Magic AU. The apocalypse in question is a mix of Zombie Apocalypse and The Silence or The Quiet Place - i.e. people eating monsters that are attracted to sound.
> 
> There really aren't any solid ages here. Charlie is in his late teens, seventeen and older, while the Trio are in the six to nine range.
> 
> Also, _Paddy_ is the Best Dog and was in fact Sirius' dog pre-apocalypse. He was a joke gift from James and his full name is Sir Padfoot the Third, the joke wound up being on James as his son apparently liked spending time with Paddy more then his own father. Why Harry is all alone except for Paddy is open for interpretation.


End file.
